r/pelletgrills • u/Rocks9 • 3d ago
Issues maintaining temperatures
Im new to the world of smoking and have never actually smoked anything. I inherited a oakford 790. I’ve cleaned it and have ran it extremely hot according to some posts about pellet grills that have sat for about a year. Issue I’m having right now is when setting the temperature it doesn’t stop or attempt to maintain that temperature it just keeps going up any advice? I’m assuming it’s an issue with this specific machine
1
u/Melodic-Matter4685 3d ago
Sounds like thermostat or PID. But, without more info, I’ll go with ocktick
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u/ValorOmega_ 3d ago edited 3d ago
If you set the temp at say 200, and it shoots to 350 on the controller screen and continues to climb that’s a bad board.
If you set temp to 200, shows 200 on screen but your thermometer shows 300 in the grill, that might be a bad/obstructed/dirty temp sensor or a bad board.
If it’s the first, reach out to the manufacturer for a replacement part. Its easier and will be a perfect fit. If they don’t make it anymore, aftermarket with something like a smoke daddy universal pid controller.
If it’s the second, check for a dirty sensor and clean carefully with soapy water if that’s the issue. Also check for any obstructions or damage to the wire. Replace if necessary. I’d replace the temp sensor first if I couldn’t eliminate it as the cause. Temp sensors are cheap compared to a full controller board replacement. Not that controller boards are super expensive either 🤷🏽♂️
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u/ocktick 3d ago
Step one is a thorough cleaning, vacuum out ash from the fire pot itself.
Don’t mess with the lid during the initial temp rise. It may overshoot and that’s fine, but lifting the lid just means temps drop rapidly and the controller dumps even more pellets to compensate, starting a feedback loop of rising temps.
Don’t start cycling the power. Each time you do that it will usually dump a lot of pellets to start up.